Boiler Service – Coventry

A gas boiler service plays a massive part in ensuring your boiler remains healthy through its entire life span. Not having your boiler serviced can lead onto different types of issues. I’m assuming that if you have landed on this page then you’re most likely considering have a boiler service done in the near future, which is great, you’re making a good decision.

A boiler service is an important task, and the level of service you receive will vary from company to company. Hopefully by the time you read this page you will be fully loaded the necessary information to help you get the job done right.

Why should we get our boilers serviced?

Why should we get our boilers serviced?

Boiler manufacturers advise that have our boilers serviced every year. Â Some people believe that this is a money making scheme so us gas engineers make more money, but this is really not the case.

When a boiler leaves the factory it is preset to work under certain conditions, when we install the boiler we should ensure the boiler is working within these parameters after installation. Over time components come out of sync or parts suffer from pressure loss and ultimately the boiler breaks down.

Your chosen company should be able to complete the boiler service by checking that all of these parameters are correct. They should readjust the ones that are no longer in sync. Leaving your boiler happy again for another 12 months.

The list is quite extensive and I will cover this in more detail, it’s definitely not a 20 minute job. If you pay for a boiler service and the engineer is done in 20 minutes, then I would recommend looking for someone else.

What should a boiler service consist of?

What should a boiler service consist of?

Below is a list of some of the basic checks that your engineer should be carrying out. This varies between different boiler makes and models, and the time scale between these checks vary also. In this instance I am going to be talking about a typical modern condensing combi boiler, the list will be in order of what I would personally do it.

Gas Tightness Test

We know that we will be disturbing some gas connections so we always check to make sure you have no gas leaks before we touch anything.

Visual Inspection of the Installation

From the minute we pull up outside the job we subconsciously assess the installation. Is the flue ok and in a suitable location? Where is the gas meter? Is there signs of any water leaks? Is there any evidence of the fume leakage? If your gas engineer isn’t the most talkative person he’s probably not being ignorant, he’s more than likely assessing wether something he has seen is dangerous or not, so try not to be offended.

Check the Water Quality

We would need drain the boiler down to check the expansion vessel charge, whilst it is drained down we will visually inspect the water quality to see if there are any signs of corrosion which could be causing an issue. We can take this further by taking water samples and have them tested with professional equipment, this would increase the boiler service cost, however, this is recommended if your system has signs of any issues to be concerned about.

Expansion Vessel Charge

Within the boiler there is something called an expansion vessel. This vessel has a balloon in it, which should be pressurised to particular pressure, this varies between different installation types. Over time the balloon loses its charge, as a result, this causes problems with other components. I would say 95% of the boilers I service the expansion vessel charge is too low.

Cleaning the Pressure Relief Valve

If there has been an expansion issue then there is a chance that your pressure relief valve will need to be serviced. The pressure relief valve (PRV) has a rubber seating, this becomes brittle due to chemicals and corrosion byproducts. If any debris gets lodged on the seating of the PRV then sometimes we are able to clean it and service it, however, this isn’t always possible and rarely required.

Cleaning the Necessary Filters

Modern boilers in particular are extremely sensitive to clogging up, due to dirt and debris within the heating system. We can clean these filters out on a boiler service to ensure your boiler has maximum protection. There 2 most common types of filter.

Magnetic Filters -Â Magnetic filters are usually installed on the central heating pipework, these act as a line of defence to prevent the boiler being contaminated by debris. These are usually quite easy to clean, unfortunately, problems can occur when disturbing them. This is not the fault of the engineer but more a design issue with the filter itself.

Inline Filters -Â An inline filter is basically a mesh which is within the pipework, these are either situated on the pipework (within a valve) or within the boiler somewhere, these would need to be cleaned if it becomes apparent there is some kind of circulation issue.

Check the Gas Pressure

Its also important to ensure that the boiler is being fed the correct amount of gas at the right pressure. If the regulator valve becomes faulty and starves your boiler of gas, then your boiler could be producing a dangerous mixture of gas and air, as a result, your boiler could produce a dangerous level of carbon monoxide.

Checking and Adjusting the Gas and Air Mixture

You may have seen an engineer insert a probe into the boiler (or flue) when servicing your boiler. This is a legal, mandatory requirement to ensure that the gas we are burning isn’t giving off carbon monoxide. Although the gas valve is calibrated at the point of production, over time the valve can come out of the desired range and adjustment would be required. An out of range gas valve can cause debris to collect on the heat exchanger, consequently, Â this can lead to a failure. Also, it will not be burning the gas as efficiently as it was designed to.

Measure the Amount of Gas the Boiler is Burning

The boiler is designed to burn a specific amount of gas, sometimes the burner can become dirty which causes the boiler to burn less gas. This can also cause issues within the combustion chamber.

Clean the Heat Exchanger

Credit: Thank you Core Heat for sharing this image from a boiler service you completed.

The cleaning of the heat exchanger is required every so often, on older boilers this was required every year but things have improved. Most manufacturers recommend that the heat exchanger is cleaned every 4-5 years, unless your engineer has a good reason to do it sooner. If your heat exchanger needs to be cleaned, it will be necessary to change the combustion chamber seal (on most boilers) so expect a slight increase on the boiler service cost, if this is the case.

Clean and Adjust the Spark and Flame Sensing Probes

The probes are put under a lot of stress, debris can create a layer over the probes which prevent the probe from creating a spark or from sensing the flame. They can warp out of shape which will lead to failed ignition. Rather than react to a breakdown, it’s much better for us to make the adjustments whilst on a boiler service and save you a call out charge.

Cleaning of the Condensate Trap

A condensing boiler creates a liquid when it is burning gas, in theory this becomes a self cleaning boiler by making use of the liquid its producing. The debris which it removes makes its way to the condensate trap. My personal experience has been that boilers which have an aluminium heat exchanger suffer most with debris collection within the condensate trap, so remind your gas engineer to pay attention to this if you have one.

One Final Once Over.

Once we have finished the boiler service we complete one last visual inspection. We’re looking to make sure everything we have touched has been replaced correctly and are not going to cause a problem when we leave. You’ll notice we haven’t got the Henry Hoover out like we used to. Modern boilers are very well protected so this isn’t always necessary. We would completed on final gas test to be certain there is no gas leaks after we have touched it, complete our paperwork and leave you to it till next year.

Hopefully this has been of value to you, maybe a lightbulb has gone off in your head and you’re not too sure that your engineer could do all of these checks in the 20 minutes it usually takes them.

In Conclusion…

So hopefully you can see now how a boiler service is as important as having your car serviced. It’s vital to help increase your boilers expected life span, and it can also help prevent unnecessary call outs. The problem I am finding is that unfortunately the market is becoming flooded with low quality gas engineers, due to fast track courses etc.

I guess my main objective here is to help give the public enough information to prevent themselves being ripped off. We are your boiler service experts and we’re happy to assist you with any questions you might have. Should you just need some free advice or employ us to take control of your boiler system please give us a call.

Thank you for taking the time to read this page, please leave a comment if you have any feedback or questions.